FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2009, file photo, a shopper looks over the milk aisle at the Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier, Vt. U.S. Reps. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and other members of Congress are pushing in December 2016 for the Food and Drug Administration to enforce a definition of milk that would not include non-dairy products like soy or almonds. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)

You don’t think much about it when you head to the grocery store, but choosing the increasingly popular alternatives over age-old token purchases has an effect on our farmers.

The dairy industry is just one branch agriculture struggling because of the trend toward food alternatives, like almond, soy and rice milks. According to a Texas A&M study, sales of the non-dairy product almond milk are now more than $700,000,000 a year.

WMAZ reported that Bibb County in central Georgia has reduced from 42 dairies in the county to just one and the man remaining saw a reduction in his profits in 2016 by nearly $75,000.

Many farmers blame the conversation that has developed around milk in recent years and the misconception that the product is unhealthy. Couple that with bad publicity about some creameries that don’t adhere to the sanitary demands, it’s easy to see why “fake milk” is putting “real milk” out of business.

Recently, lawmakers in Washington D.C. introduced a bill that would prohibit companies from labeling almond, rice, and soy-based products as “milk.”

Jessica Szilagyi is statewide contributor for All On Georgia and Market Manager for Southeast Georgia. Her main focus with All On Georgia is state and local politics as well as agriculture. She’s served as a policy analyst at the State Capitol and as a campaign manager in political races across the state.

She writes for GeorgiaPol.com and has two blogs of her own: ‘The Perspicacious Conservative’, a political blog, and ‘Hair Blowers to Lawn Mowers’, a blog on moving from Atlanta to rural Georgia. Jessica is also a contributor for Fox5 Atlanta’s ‘Like it Or Not.’

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